In 1835
he attempted--See Joseph Duncan to Edward Coles, Feb. 25, 1835; Edward
Coles to Joseph Duncan, March 16, 1835; Joseph Duncan to Edward Coles,
March 20, 1835; Robert Dyson to Edward Coles, April 9, 1835; and Edward
Coles to Joseph Duncan, June 13, 1835; all in the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania. Back

In
1841 Coles served on a committee--Edward Coles to [?], April 20, 1841,
New York Public Library; Edward Coles to Isaac Coles, April 11, 1841,
Princeton University Library. Coles tells Isaac that he was offered the
directorship but turned it down because he didn't want to spend his
summers in Philadelphia. The change in his circumstances from April to
July is baffling. Back

writing his old schoolfriend--Edward Coles to
President Tyler, July 7, 1841, Princeton University Library. In an earlier
letter to Tyler, Coles, writing on behalf of the renomination of his
brother-in-law Andrew Stevenson to the position of ambassador to England,
calls Tyler his boyhood friend from college, and Tyler answers in the same
vein (Edward Coles to John Tyler, Jan. 26, 1835; John Tyler to Edward
Coles, Jan. 31, 1835; both in the Princeton University Library). Back

I console myself with the hope--Edward
Coles to J.R. Poinsett, March 15, 1851, William and Mary Quarterly
ser. 2, vol. 7 (1927) 112. In the Roberts Coles Collection there is a
receipt dated 1855 for a $1000 contribution from Coles to be a "Life
director" of the African Colonization Society. Back

Coles later insisted--A note by Coles in
the Princeton University Library, written in Sept. 1849, says that Madison
had mentioned to Robert Taylor, his lawyer, that he had asked Dolley to
free his slaves after he died (it being too difficult to do in his will)
and that Dolley had confirmed this story in a conversation with Henry
Clay. In 1855 Coles wrote to the Willises (Mrs. Willis was Madison's
niece) for their recollections. Mrs. Willis believed that Madison had left
a separate sealed envelope to be opened by my wife should she be living
at the time of my death. This envelope was lost, but both Coles and
Mrs. Willis believe that it left instructions for Dolley to free his
slaves after her death. John Willis, however, says that his mother doesn't
think that the letter contained that instruction, since Madison was afraid
that if his slaves knew they were to be freed on Dolley's death, they
would kill her. (Edward Coles to John and Nelly Willis, Dec. 10, 1855;
John Willis to Edward Coles, Dec. 19, 1855; both in the Princeton
University Library.) This fear, of course, is precisely what Coles had
communicated to Madison back in 1832. The discrepancy between Coles' story
in 1849 (that Madison had told Dolley to free his slaves immediately after
his death) and in 1855 (that, ignoring Coles' advice, he had left a
sealed note instructing Dolley to free his slaves after her death)
makes one conclude that, despite his protestations, Coles wasn't at all
clear on what Madison had done. Back

His youngest son, Roberts Coles--Roberts Coles
returned to Virginia when he was 21 (1859) and bought about 900 acres from
Tucker Skipwith Coles north of the portion of the Enniscorthy estate owned
by Tucker's father, John Coles III, together with a small wooden house and
outbuildings. When the Civil War began, despite some attempts by the
family in Virginia to induce him to return to Philadelphia or stay neutral
by going abroad, he joined the Confederates and was killed at the Battle
of Roanoke Island on Feb. 8, 1862. Roberts Coles' will gave all of his
property to Peyton Skipwith Coles, but he stilled owed Tucker Skipwith
Coles $19,000 in principal and interest for the estate. So Tucker took
back the land and cancelled the $14,000 in principal, but Edward Coles, in
what must have been a melancholy duty, sent Tucker the $5,000 in interest
owed by his dead son (William B. Coles, The Coles Family of
Virginia, New York, 1931, p. 700). In the Roberts Coles Collection is
a letter written by Roberts Coles on the eve of battle, in which he makes
clear that his father knows nothing about his whereabouts. Back